Militant Preacher

He is a militant clergyman. He asked State authorities to prevent his Yale classmates from serving drinks at reunion. He defied his bishop and when he was tried by an ecclesiastical court on 127 different charges pleaded his own case and was found guilty on three counts. Last week he was asked not to preach to a congregation in Hull, England, because he was "not in a fit state."

His name is George Chalmers Richmond, a native of Springfield, Mass. (1870), graduate of Yale in 1895, Protestant Episcopal minister in Manhattan, Rochester, New York, Philadelphia. In Rochester: he attacked Republican Boss George W. Aldridge. Brewer Henry Hathaway (warden of his church), in spite of the tearful protestations of his bishop, William D. Walker; attacked also the Standard Oil Co.; won notoriety by marrying two actors of a burlesque troupe on the stage of Rochester's Old Corinthian Theatre. In Philadelphia: he denounced local politicians, Bishop Coadjutor Alexander Mackay-Smith, Bishop Philip Mercer Rhinelander; defended Professor Scott Nearing who was ousted by the University of Pennsylvania for "radicalism." He was tried (1914) before the Chancellor of the Diocese on 14 counts of conduct unbecoming a clergyman and in violation of his ordination vows. The trial, lasting a year, ended in Preacher Richmond's suspension from the Church (1915) for a year. He was again brought to trial in 1916 on 126 charges.* Convicted on three counts, he was again suspended for two years. He resigned from the ministry in 1918.

Deciding to enter the Baptist Church, he was welcomed by the late great John Roach Straton, who called him "one of the world's prophets." But in 1922 he was temporarily reinstated by Bishop Rhinelander, appointed lay reader in St. Paul's Church, Evanston, Wyo. Calling his new parish "the wickedest city in the U. S.," he was sued for libel, deposed. He entered the Methodist Church but soon left town. Before he went he filed suits totaling $125,000.

In June 1928, he began proceedings in the common pleas court, Philadelphia, for reinstatement in the Episcopalian ministry. The suit is still pending. Last year he went abroad to stump for Britain's Labor Party. Lately he has been preaching at St. Columba's Church, Hull, England. Last week the Rev. Canon Edward Arthur Berry, Vicar of Drypool, went to tall, bald, sleek Preacher Richmond, prevailed on him to stop preaching at St. Columba's. Said he to inquirers: "I felt he was too emotional and too excitable. My sole reason was I did not think he was in a fit state to preach."

*Among them: that he called Vestryman Charles A. Brown "perjurer, liar, moral pervert, trickster;" that he attempted to extort $10,000 from Bishop Mackay-Smith under threat of publishing some of the Bishop's letters to him; that he committed assault and battery on one Anna Phillips; that he charged Parishioner Edward Matlack with being a thief.

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